From 600+ conversations with the world’s leading thinkers.
Our vision statement was about elevating the world from a place of mediocrity to greatness.
The power of regret is that it clarifies what we value and instructs on how to do better. When people tell you what they regret they most, they are telling you what they value the most.
The crux of the matter is the internal liberation that comes from acknowledging that there will always be more to do than we can handle, and that certainty about the future is unattainable. It's a form of defeat, yet immensely productive, because as long as you believe mastering everything is just extremely challenging, you'll continue to struggle.
We are meaning driven – it's not enough for us to what there is, we need to know why.
Stories help us to develop cognitive flexibility, strengthen our epistemic muscles. It is an intellectual growth but also a spiritual one. It changes us deep inside. Stories rehumanize those who have been dehumanized.
We crystallize and store knowledge in specialised sounds and language, and then play with it – build and forge and mould it and model with it – using it to grip hold of the past and to imagine and plan the future.
Tai Chi is the physical manifestation of the Taoist philosophy. It represents the union of yin and yang. It allows one to embrace the seeming contradictions in the world, and in business. How do you become a profitable business while also doing good for society? How do you embrace ambiguity while also using scientific thinking?
I am not a big fan of the word hope, I am a big fan of the word determination. Being determined is a moral position, when you are depend on the word hope you are lazy.
What was impossible 20 years ago, is possible today. What is impossible today, will be possible x-years from now. We are always in change.
You can't control what happens to you, you can only control how you react to it. So, focusing on what's in your control and accepting for the time being what's beyond your control is a really useful therapeutic idea.
Entrepreneurship is an integral aspect of the human condition. Our inner desire to start something new and make it big has been one of the most catalysing factors behind our collective evolution as a species.
For us, for our people, who were under communist domination, we were comfortable and happy to take on a European identity when we gained independence. Identity is something incredibly personal; and how the individual combines their national and European identity is something they do themselves.